Availability:

Select Quantity:

In this thought-provoking interdisciplinary work, Shaun Marmon describes how eunuchs, as a category of people who embodied ambiguity, both defined and mediated critical thresholds of moral and physical space in the household, in the palace and in the tomb of pre-modern Islamic society. The author's central focus is on the sacred society of eunuchs who guarded the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina for over six centuries and whose last representatives still perform many of their time honored rituals to this day. Through Marmon's account, the "sacred" eunuchs of Medina become historical guides into uncharted dimensions of Islamic ritual, political symbolism, social order, gender and time.

From Mecca to Calvary: Leaving Islam to Become a Christian

Manufacturer: Dextera Books

Each year, millions of individuals leave the religion of Islam to become Christians. Why? These individuals are often threatened with violence - or even death - for being â€œapostatesâ€ of Islam. Why would they take this kind of risk? These people are frequently shunned by Muslim friends and disowned by their families. In Muslim societies and communities, they lose all honor and respect. Why would these individuals sacrifice so much to become Christians? What would compel them to seek a relationship with Jesus Christ? This book, From Mecca to Calvary, will answer these questions. Both Christians and Muslims believe that God has spoken to mankind. Christians hold that the Bible is the message from God, while Muslims believe that Godâ€™s messages are in the Quran. Islamic scholars claim the Bible was corrupted in centuries past and so it is no longer a reliable source of spiritual truth. From Mecca to Calvary reveals the blatant dishonesty of this claim. The preservation and integrit...

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (Classic Reprint)

Manufacturer: Forgotten Books

The 22nd of July was a grand trial of temper to our little party. The position of Bir Abbas exactly resembles that of El Hamra, except that the bulge of the hill-girt fiumara is at this place about two miles wide. There are the usual stone forts and palm-leaved hovels for the troopers stationed here to hold the place and to escort travellers, with a coffee-shed, and a hut or two, called a bazaar, but no village. The encamping ground was a bed of loose sand, with which the violent simoom wind filled the air: not a tree or a bush was in sight} a species of hardy locust and swarms of flies were the only remnants of animal life: the VOL. II.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful a...

The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine

Manufacturer: Anchor
Brand: Trofimov, Yaroslav

In The Siege of Mecca, acclaimed journalist Yaroslav Trofimov pulls back the curtain on a thrilling, pivotal, and overlooked episode of modern history, examining its repercussions on the Middle East and the world.Â On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. That same morning, gunmen stunned the world by seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca, creating a siege that trapped 100,000 people and lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths. But in the days before CNN and Al Jazeera, the press barely took notice. Trofimov interviews for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, and draws upon hundreds of newly declassified documents. With the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals the long-lasting aftereffects of the uprising and its influence on the world today.

The Road to Mecca

Manufacturer: Fons Vitae
Brand: Brand: Fons Vitae

In this extraordinary and beautifully-written autobiography, Asad tells of his initial rejection of all institutional religions, his entree into Taoism, his fascinating travels as a diplomat, and finally his embrace of Islam.

Standing Alone: An American Womanâ€™s Struggle for the Soul of Islam

Manufacturer: HarperOne
Brand: Nomani, Asra Q.

As President Bush is preparing to invade Iraq, Wall Street Journal correspondent Asra Nomani embarks on a dangerous journey from Middle America to the Middle East to join more than two million fellow Muslims on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims once in their lifetime. Mecca is Islam's most sacred city and strictly off limits to non-Muslims. On a journey perilous enough for any American reporter, Nomani is determined to take along her infant son, Shibli -- living proof that she, an unmarried Muslim woman, is guilty of zina, or "illegal sex." If she is found out, the puritanical Islamic law of the Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia may mete out terrifying punishment. But Nomani discovers she is not alone. She is following in the four-thousand-year-old footsteps of another single mother, Hajar (known in the West as Hagar), the original pilgrim to Mecca and mother of the Islamic nation.Each day of her hajj evokes for Nomani the history of a different Muslim matriarch: Eve, from whom she learns about...

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851-2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855-6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose 1829 account is also reissued in this series. Volume 3 of Burton's book vividly describes the pilgrims' journey from Medina to Mecca, with catering including coffee, rice and 'occasionally ... tough mutton and indigestible goat', crowded camp-sites and all-night prayers and singing. Finally he arrives at the Kaabah and witnesses the culminating ceremonies of the hajj.

Cities of God and Nationalism: Rome, Mecca, and Jerusalem as Contested Sacred World Cities

Manufacturer: Routledge
Brand: Brand: Paradigm Publishers

"A tour-de-force in different fields of knowledge. It takes world-city and world-history literatures to a higher level of depth and understanding. It is difficult to imagine a more pioneering, in-depth study of world cities." Ramon Grosfoguel, Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley "A remarkable and original discussion of three great sacred cities across time, and their transformation by nationalism in the modern world." Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University Far from spawning an age of tolerance, modernity has created the social basis of division and exclusion. This book elaborates this provocative claim as it explores the rich but divided histories of three cities located at the crossroads of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Many observers presume that violence is built into these sacred cities because their citizens cling to religious or cultural ideals of some archaic age; only when this history is overcome can citizens enter a new age of brotherhood. Samman persuade...

Mecca and the Baron, Faith and Me

Manufacturer: AuthorHouse

I spent the most beautiful years of my life in Germany, where I was trained to become a ship's captain; later I kept my connection to Germany alive especially through reading German books. A German colleague brought me a book. Its title was Wallfahrt nach Mecca [Pilgrimage to Mecca], by Baron Heinrich von Maltzan, a German who claimed to have visited Mecca 150 years ago. I read the book with great interest. This book was simply fun to read, and it illustrated Arabs and Muslims in a humorous light. The preface of Baron Heinrich's book, amazed me as it stated that: "When Baron Heinrich von Maltzan published his book about his journey to Mecca in 1865, he was suddenly under the spotlight of society. He revealed himself to be a great scholar of Arab history, people, legend, and tradition. His knowledge of Islam and its commandments proved to be without the slightest doubt, the most accurate, not only for his time, but also throughout the century." I was shocked; the book fell from my hand, and I was speechless. B...

From Mecca to Rome

Manufacturer: Xulon Press

I was born a Moslem. I spent the first forty six years of my life believing the Qur'an. I had no reason to doubt anything in the Qur'an until a turning point in my life which I will explain later. A t this pivotal moment in my search for true religious practice I made my own comparative study of what the Qur'an tells us and what the Christian bible tells us.Â The first thing I found was that the central message of the Christian bible and indeed Christianity, is that God loves us and He commands us to love our neighbor as we love our selves. I don't find any message of Allah loving mankind in the Qur'an. On the contrary, the Quar'an's consistent message that Allah will send all of mankind to hell without regard to the quality of their life here on earth.Â No where do I see the God I have come to know, the Judaic/Christian God of the bible exalting His people to kill and do other harm to one another in his Name.Â At the very beginning the Qur'an is flawed because it tells of Allah commanding Mohamed to...